In thinking it's not ok to reveal your son's ASD diagnosis to 4million strangers on Instagram?

[Dabralor]

Mrs Hunch - Instagram cleaning woman- has posted a pic with her little son. He's had an autism diagnosis confirmed.

How can it be justifiable to share his private medical information with all these random strangers? Wherever he goes now in his life, a quick Google search will reveal really personal information about him. This information is no longer his to possess.

If my parents had done this to me, I don't think I could ever forgive them. I feel really sorry for the kids of social media stars 😔.

I’m really torn on this one.

autism is not shameful or something to be hidden. It is just a different way of being.

that said, our child asked us to keep her information private and so we did. We didn’t even tell her school until she was ready.

I want to live in a world where my child didn’t feel like she had something to hide.

——

as for quick and easy. When our child started having mental health issues, we gathered up every bit of money we could find to solve the problem. The process is in fact relatively quick and easy if you hand over enough money. You can get a full panel, multi-day evaluation, for every possible underlying issue in a matter of weeks, not years.

Perhaps you'll consider that if you aren't going to post helpfully you should sit on your hands. No struggling parent of a child with likely autism needs to be told that waiting lists are appallingly long and I'd expect someone with personal experience of this to have a drop or two of empathy.

I don't have anything further to say to you. Have a nice day.

It’s to great to share knowledge and awareness of conditions like ASD. I don’t have a problem with parents taking part in documentaries and radio shows.

The problem with influencers is that they use their children as bait for consumers. They know that the child’s image will increase the value of their advertising space because more people will come to see a child than to see a 30 something woman. It’s scarily unethical when you break it down to what is actually happening here.

This is more about capacity of the child to consent than the diagnosis...that's a red herring. None of these poor kids should have their lives shared over commercial media for monetary gain. In the UK it is not monitored as e.g child acting might be. It puts parents in an extraordinary position of power over their children's lives which can be exploited.

It's not right at all.

I agree with you op. Any diagnoses should be kept private not because it's shameful, it's because the person who is being diagnosed should have the choice whether they would want to share it or not and not be recorded on public domain. Sharing it on social media is a hell of a lot different than sharing to friends and family. This isn't just about sharing diagnoses either, I am strongly against influencers that use their kids in their online presence.

It might be a different way of being for your child ,
It,s hugely disabling for my child
No its nothing to be ashamed of but this thread clearly shows how ignorant people are about the vastness if the spectrum and how it impacts everyone differently.

There's a much wider issue about privacy and consent for the children of celebrities and influencers.

But I think the idea that any medical diagnosis is private but the rest of their lives are open to public consumption is a bit of a daft distinction.

Some medical diagnoses you can have a reasonable expectation of privacy around, others you don't. If her child were blind, would anyone be up in arms that his diagnosis had been revealed? Hardly likely.

If it's fairly obvious from IG posts that the child has additional needs, then explaining that he is Autistic seems perfectly reasonable.

Personally I think the whole notion of monotising your children on social media is unethical, so I'd draw the line somewhere else entirely.

All parents should stop sharing so much about their children on social media

MN is social media. We'd have almost nothing to say if we stopped gossiping about our DC.

Don't give me BS about MN fora being "different" and anonymous: people get outed here, people get recognised, some of the details are extremely personal, the email logins have been hacked before. The ruddy details sometimes land in tabloids.

I look forward to the tumbleweeds when people stop saying anything ever about the medical diagnosis of anyone else in their family.

I have autism myself. My post wasn’t rude though maybe incomplete but not rude , that I’ll take on board and try to include full info in future . Hopefully you can do the same and improve your attitude issue although having autistic dc is stressful so maybe that’s why you seemed rude it’s perhaps just stress

anyway , best wishes

I don't think anon posts on MN are comparable to Insta, at all.

Just had a look at her insta account for the first time. How twee it all is

I wonder what the implications of health data of any sort being out there will be in the future with more complex systems, likely incorporating AI making decisions about mortgages, insurance, credit agreements...

And how easy those decisions will be for humans to unpick if discrimination is suspected?

@x2boys
she didn’t say that it wasn’t disabling she said that it was a ‘different way of being’ and nothing to be ashamed of. The two things arent mutually exclusive. Things are generally moving much more to the social model of disability rather than the medical model. The spectrum part of ASD is not about severity (as measured by those around the person) but it refers to the individual profile of difficulties in each of the many aspects of autism. Every autistic person is affected to a different degree in each area, some areas are more easy for others to see, some people have more visible distress reactions, it doesn’t make them more or less autistic

Oops wrong thread

Why is it the child's responsibility to educate the population on their health conditions? I have epilepsy and ADHD (diagnosed) and no, I would not have appreciated my mother making this news beyond what was necessary for school and family. It is the private information of the individual at whatever age to share, not the parent for their social media agenda. If the child wishes to proactively share their medical details that is fine but is there confirmation of that here? That is the same whatever condition but has different implications between a broken leg and a neuro diversity or long term condition as one is for life and has different understanding from the public hence one may wish to keep it private.

What about those people like my son that are severley affected in ALL Areas ?
There are many many people like hi!n,and they don't have a voice
But people,refuse to acknowledge that
And yet again those that are the most disabled by it get ignored

Most people would choose to tell their friends/family though wouldn't they if their child received a diagnosis? What's the purpose of doing that other than to raise awareness, have more support etc. you could make the same argument there.

Most people don't have 4.7 MILLION people reading their posts, I think that's the difference.

You honestly can't see the difference between telling people who are in your life and in your child's life like family and close friends and 4 million strangers who you don't actually know?

You honestly can't see the difference between telling people who are in your life and in your child's life like family and close friends and 4 million strangers who you don't actually know?

Of course there's a difference, I'm just saying the same argument could be made as any child with a diagnosis hasn't chosen to share the information with their extended family or parents friends etc.

It's a huge breach of the child's privacy and abuse of her parental position.

Which is why many of those, several of whom have explained as much on this thread only tell those who they think really need to know such as close family and friends and in time maybe those in education or support settings etc. That's not in any way comparable to sharing it with millions of strangers. One is done with the best interests of the child at its heart the latter is done mostly I'd wager for "likes".

Not just for likes. Cold hard cash. It's appalling that there are so many people who have monetised their children but here we are.

The difference is that ordinary people aren't selling a lifestyle and using their children (whether NT or ND) as shills to flog their brand. I don't follow Mrs Hinch but I've just looked at her grid and the post about her son's diagnosis is an ignominious companion to the one where she's plugging her collaboration with Lenor.

so then the ASD is irrelevant, as shes shares everything about her children.